Shelter 842
Shelter Vault 842 (from Fallout Shelter) is a secondary vault located in Ohio, USA. It is led by an unknown overseer and continuing to house the original dwellers and their descendants. The vault also runs a sociological experiment under the overseer which he was granted to choose himself. Location Vault 842 is located southeast of Cambridge, Ohio in the former United States. This is halfway between Columbus and Pittsburgh. Interstates 70 and 77 run close to the vault and provided good access for evacuating citizens to the vault. Vault background and experiment For his scientific advice and dedicated support of their vault program, a foundation of Vault-Tec granted the later overseer funds and technology for an own "secondary" vault. These are vaults smaller in size than the usual Vault-Tec ones and not involved in experiments conducted by Vault-Tec. The later overseer made the specifications for layout and equipment of the rooms. It contained, among other special rooms, an airlock entrance with superficial anti-radiation cleansing. Focus was upon self-sufficiency and a long operating time comprising easily repairable devices. After completion, the vault was handed over to the overseer and became fully independent of Vault-Tec. However, Vault 842 is conducting an experiment, as the overseer is a professional biologist and hobby sociologist. His vision is to make an experiment which was not conceivable in the pre-war world due to involving human races. He wanted to test how the vault "population" and individuals react to the introduction of favouring white people. At first, the population was made of the average proportion of races of pre-war Ohio, e.g. a white majority and a black minority. All residents were singles. The rules the overseer established some time after the Big War were: only white inhabitants are allowed to have children and in case of emergency or scarcity of supplies (food, water, medicine) white people are to be favored over black people. Marriages were forbidden and changing sexual partners was strongly promoted. Also, all babies must be given the surname of the father. In regular, short-interval censuses, social and work assessments are made by the overseer. To support the resulting way of life, all practising of any religion was strictly forbidden, no spiritual rituals, devotional objects or scriptures are tolerated. With these measures, the overseer wanted to assess the development of the racial makeup as well as the development of family clans when the number of family names becomes less over time. Violation of the rules by individuals leads to the permanent ban from the vault. Extensive surveillance by camera, microphone and data coming from the facilities, is maintained by the overseer. Punishment is the policy to prevent rebellion against the rules and authority of the overseer. He himself is totally unknown to the vault inhabitants and lives in a completely independent subsection of the vault. Loudspeaker announcements are the only communication which often contain commands and advices to support the vault's continued existence. The announcements are also used for individual instructions and propaganda aiming at obedience and appreciation of the overseer. Also, harsh punishments of individuals or groups (vicarious liability) keep up a fear for violating the rules and being disloyal. Furthermore, because the inhabitants do not know where and how big the overseer section is and how many people he has guarding him there, they didn't insurge since moving to the vault. After the rules were announced they were met with disapproval and a bad atmosphere resulted. There was only sparse violence between vault dwellers and only one person was banned from the vault due to rebellion. Neither organized uprisings nor riots took place. With relentless and purposeful enforcement of the rules the situation finally settled after about one year. Contributing to that were two circumstances. First, the vault itself and expeditions were not well protected from attacks of feral mutated animals and ghouls. As experience grew and diverse adaptive measures suggested by the overseer were undertaken, the life-threatening situations drastically decreased. Second, after getting used to their environment and jobs in maintaining and self-sustaining of the vault, the people faced shortages of food and medicine less often and, as a result, came to the conclusion that effort and collaboration under the goal of a better coexistence. The most loyal inhabitants (to the overseer) even came up with the thesis that the whole purpose of the rules was to bind them together and ensure neccessary motivation for the labour. As expected, the reducing number of surnames was building a sense of being a family/clan member and loyalty to that goup of people, although the families were more of a "patchwork" kind due to the relatively frequent change of partners. The effect was weakened, however, due to the building community of all vault dwellers. Thus, the membership in a family clan only had effect on with who dwellers were talking more and spending more time. The most negative consequences did not exceed verbal disputes and mobbing of some individuals outside the big families. Over time, the dwellers began to not only follow the overseer's administration, many also began to appreciate his harsh but helpful rule and they attribute the success and relative safety of the vault to his leadership. This image of the overseer is what the propaganda aimed at. The most loyal inhabitants even see in him a hero they worship, probably as a substitute for their religion they were forced to give up. The experiment is scheduled to end after several years when the overseer will eventually die. The rules will expire and the dwellers will be free to self-administrate. Most Notable Residents Wasteland Scouts ("Heroes") * Adam Longfellow, son of Ole Longfellow * Amber Moore, the shelter's fashion idol, wears valuable accessories, owns a Pallas's cat * Burke * Carolyn Curtis, likes wearing a raider armor and is the contact to the wastelanders, owns a St. Bernard named Charlie * Catherine Shaw, fearless survival expert and experienced in the wasteland, esp. in dangerous situations * Charlotte Foster, technician, salvages repair parts in the wasteland, owns a female husky named Trench * Christoph Hicks, first child born in the shelter, uses to wear leather armor * Dylan Ward, founding resident, nicknamed "The Sheriff of the wasteland", owns a Rottweiler named Sam * Frank Barton, former settler in the wasteland, now contact and ally to them * Madison Fox, fit, does martial arts and fencing, coordinates fitness exercises with the dwellers * Marie Walker, very child-friendly, also fan of military * Moria Brown, shelter chief engineer, loves building armor and arms from scrap, owns a greyhound * Roger King, huge baseball fan (his weapon is a bat, his armor has a helmet), likes gambling * Sean Hicks, techician, eagle eye, heartthrob * Stephanie Day * Stephen Hicks * Todd King, owns a husky * Walter Hicks, brawny fighter Airlock Guards * Benjamin Richards, secures the room behind the airlock, elegant looks and manners * Jeremy Webster, major, former wasteland scout, former commander * Ole Longfellow, commander * Zachary Williams, former airforce pilot The Tough Nurses * Julia King * Judy Bush * Ruth Webster * Samantha King Other Notable Residents * Alexander Baker, nerd, sci-fi and fantasy expert * Amber Crawford, founding resident and medic * Angela Berry, beauty of the shelter and admired singer * Carl Peters, always cares about his well-groomed appearance * Christian King, charismatic vault radio host and womanizer * Dennis Peterson, Rock'n'Roll musician, (music) DJ on the radio station, considered the "coolest" man among the dwellers * Emma Martin, mechanic, emulates Virginia Johnson * Eugene White, taylor, huge wrestling fan * Harry Johnson, (head) chef * Joyce Hicks, biologist, has green hair, animal-friend, owns Bella, a Somali cat * Noah Robinson, called The Major, plays this role for fun without having actual powers, dresses in suit, monocle and cylinder, owns Zenon, a poodle * Dr. Ronald Hicks, principal scientist (chemist) * Russell King, the creep of the vault, horror fan * Virginia Johnson, weapon engineer, charismatic punk, considered the "coolest" woman among the dwellers * Dr. Wayne Anderson, charismatic chief physician Category:Vaults